Why Aren’t I Losing Fat – 5 Mistakes

The frustration of being on a diet but not losing body fat is enough to make most people quit. Here’s a list the most common, and easy to fix mistakes most people make.

Mistake 1 – Not Eating Enough

The biggest and most common mistake is also counter-intuitive to most on a diet. You’re simply not eating enough. You might believe slashing your daily calorie intake to the absolute bare minimum will churn through body fat faster, but it won’t.

What will happen is your body will slow your metabolism, burning fewer calories throughout the day. You’ll also be moody, cranky, and downright miserable. Not getting enough calories will also drastically decrease your energy levels, making your exercise sessions less effective.

Mistake 2 – Not Enough Fiber

Fiber has multiple benefits to aid weight loss, and appetite control. One of the greatest problems while on a diet is hunger pangs resulting constant grazing. Those 100-200 calories of unscheduled eating is enough to ruin your diet.

Fiber can helps you feel fuller, resulting is fewer calories consumed during meals without the subsequent hunger cravings a few hours later. Fiber also helps keep you regular, and can help clear out your digestive tract.

Mistake 3 – Skipping Caffeine

Caffeine is a known metabolism booster with studies showing a gain of up 15% between those who consumed caffeine while dieting and those that don’t. Caffeine can also act as an appetite suppressant, curbing your hunger and helping you eat less between meals.

You need to watch the extra junk you put in your coffee though. Too much sugar and creamer can offset the benefits of caffeine by adding extra calories to your daily budget.

Mistake 4 – Not Tracking Every Calorie

Guestimating while on a diet is bad, real bad. If you’re overweight it likely means, calorie management isn’t your strongest asset and you consistently underestimate calorie intake which resulted in your weight gain.

So what does that mean? Accept that you need to be more disciplined, and if you just “eyeball” your calories instead of writing it down you’re likely to go into a surplus for the day. There are so many ways to make calorie tracking these days with phone apps being the most convenient.

Mistake 5 – Not Knowing Target Calorie Range

Most people have a target weight, that they’re aiming for. They know how many pounds they want to lose, and often they have a time frame in mind. What they neglect, however, is the optimal calorie range they should be in to consistently lose weight over long periods of time.

Arbitrarily slashing 800 calories from your diet so you can lose weight is not an optimal solution. You should first calculate how many calories you need to maintain your current weight, then reduce that number by 300-500 per day.

Cutting more calories than 500 calories per day usually results in diet failure because it’s too restrictive. You can use this calculator to find you current maintenance calorie range.

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